This year's project is going to see the duo heading out to the Kasupe Project, Monkey Bay, Malawi (http://www.kasupe.org.uk/). Tim made a connection with Davy, Kasupe's co-founder, back in 2005 and when Davy heard about the project in South Africa he reached out to see if a similar venture might be possible for Kasupe.

This August will be about installing 5 Raspberry Pi computers for the primary school which Kaspue has started in a rural village near Monkey Bay, Malawi. This will immediately open up the internet to children for researching assignments, connecting with others socially using social media and learning about basic ICT skills as well as e-safety. There will also be a chance for members of the community to get online for a small fee.

Charging for use of the internet is nothing new, the web cafe concept has been around for a long time. However, this will be a good way of creating a small revenue stream for the new centre which will be re-invested back into the project. This will pay for any breakges, 3G data bills and might even lead to the creation of a part-time job managing the project. These goals are ambitious and will need to be tested for their practical merit in the field.

Tim's interest in this project is from a leadership/action research perspective which specialises in organisational learning within complex and dynamic environments.

Tyson is interested in understanding how IT in general can be deployed in developing countries to make a positive and lasting impact on communities.

Monday, 20 January 2014

Action Inquiry Workshop — Jan 2014 – ongoing

Tim attended a powerful workshop (see this) run by Cirrus partners. The venue was out of this world.

The three days were a full on exposure to action inquiry... and the event has been just a starting point for much more. Made some great connections which I think will be a source of much inspiration for the times ahead.

Wednesday, 13 November 2013

Raspberry-Pi Internet Cafe — Nov 2013 – ongoing

A joint project between Living Systems and Urban Shift. We have started with an exploration of just what are Raspberry-pi? Can we use them to facilitate group learning and team work with children using ‘minecraft-pi‘? And there is a longer range hope – that we will be able to get some ‘pi’ out to a project we are partnering with in Joburg – so that both children who have been orphaned by AIDs and the centre itself (by setting up an internet cafe) will also be able to benefit from the amazingly affordable little computers.

I (Tim) have been inspired by the work of Seymour Papert – a great advocate for children (and adults) learning through ‘purposeful play’. A really interesting and provoking article on using computers with children can be found here. And an article about working with schools – and technology – here.

Sunday, 1 September 2013

P4C Youth Group — Sept 2013 – ongoing

P4C is an exciting and liberating approach to working with young people! Tim has been fortunate to have received training from SAPERE and is lending a hand on a regular basis at a local Youth Group to help embed this approach, working alongside the young people and youth workers to model the very hands on approach. The group is question led, and we work hard to ensure that all aspects of the group are co-created with the young people.